Exercise Lesson of the Week: Don't Think, Just Exercise

What happens when you decide to do a workout? In a perfect world, there's a perfect time (which you, of course, have available) where you get your perfectly organized self (who, of course, is always on top of things) and go have yourself a perfect workout.

In the real world, there is no perfect time or perfect organization or perfect anything. In fact, your mind will argue with you, going through a series of mental gymnastics that, were your body to try those moves, would result in permanent injury.

Here's an example: "Okay, I'll workout after work. But, wait, I forgot to wash my gym clothes, so that means I'll have to do laundry before bed. And I don't have anything to snack on before my workout, so I have to stop by the store on the way to work, which means I have to leave 15 minutes early, which means getting up 15 minutes early, which means going to bed 15 minutes early and..."

A workout seems like an easy prospect on its face, but most of us have to jump through some logistical hoops to make it work. There's obviously a certain amount of planning involved, but we sometimes make it much more complicated than it has to be. We may do this to deliberately sabotage ourselves or we may just need more time to figure out how to create a simpler workout plan.

Take one client, *Betty, who constantly struggled with a chaotic morning schedule and a vague promise of "I'll workout when I find the time." The woman has 4 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and an ongoing construction project. Yeah. Time. Good one.

The truth was, she didn't want to get up early to exercise, which was her only real option. To make it easier, we came up with a plan:

1. Put workout clothes next to bed the night before.


2. Get up and put on workout clothes before leaving the bedroom.


3. Brush your teeth, splash water on your face. Do NOT look at yourself in the mirror, as your tired face will try to convince you to go back to bed.


4. Drink some juice and make your little K-cup dealio.


5. Walk down the stairs to your basement, turn on the treadmill.


6. Push whatever buttons make the treadmill go and begin walking.


7. Keep walking until at least 10 minutes has passed.


8. Do all of this without thinking about it. Each time she found herself thinking ("This is awful, I'm tired, I want to go back to bed, this is going to suck.") she had to respond with, "I'm not allowed to think about that."

It took some practice and, of course, she hasn't been perfect, but taking the mind out of it has made it easier just to get going. Sometimes? You really do have just do it. (Thanks, Nike)

What do you think? How does your mind try to talk you out of exercising and how do you deal with it? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

exercises to lose weight